


Dungeons and Avengers

by wordsaplenty



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Anxious Steve Rogers, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Slow Burn, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-05-09 01:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14706257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsaplenty/pseuds/wordsaplenty
Summary: Steve has newly transferred to a four year university after doing two years at a community college.  Too anxious to make friends and too nerdy to believe that anyone will actually have the same interests, it takes some cajoling from his Aunt Peggy to get him to put himself out there and meet people.  He decides to put up a flyer in a coffee shop advertising that he's looking for people to play some Dungeons and Dragons with him thinking that this will appease Peggy and allow him to continue on with life by himself.  But cute barista Bucky has a different plan.Basically my excuse to create a story where Bucky, Steve, Nat, and Sam all play DnD together.





	1. Chapter 1

The transition from community college to an actual four year university was one that Steve was still finding a bit mind boggling. First off, there was the sheer size of the campus. At the community college he had been stuck going to for two years the arts buildings were right next to the student parking lot. He only had a short walk and then he was where he needed to be. Here he had to factor in a solid 20 minutes to walk to each class. 

Second off, there was the amount of people. There were so many people. People crowding the commons, people crowding the student union, people crowding the hallways, the classrooms, the sidewalks. Everywhere he looked there were people. 

Third off, it wasn’t necessarily the amount of people that was so mind boggling, it was the confidence they exuded with their every movement. From the way they walked, the way they talked, to the way they drank their coffee, every single person on this campus seemed confident. They knew what they wanted and they knew what they were doing. And then there was Steve. Scrawny and stubborn but in no way shape or form confident. 

But still he had to count his blessings. He had been able to use what money was left after the funeral and medical expenses were paid off, combined with a scholarship and a small loan from Aunt Peggy, to finally transfer to a four year university. He had lucked out and managed to be one of the few transfer students to get into the dorm and a single at that. He was taking lots of interesting art classes and all around things were looking up.

“Have you made any friend yet dear?” The gentleness in her soft British accent did not detract from the edge behind them, she already knew the answer and would not take kindly to lying. And yet, Steve was stubborn.

“Oh you know how it goes Aunt Peggy. I’m still just trying to find my way around this huge place, you know?” Not exactly a lie but also not the whole truth. 

Steve heard a sigh from the phone that was pressed tightly against his ear. He was sitting on his bed in his room surrounded by his various sketch books and art supplies.

“I may be old dear but I do remember university. And even in my day it was a time to find yourself and experiment. Have I ever told you about the time I got drunk with a bunch of girl friends and we hatched a plan to steal the exam material from our evil history professor?”

Now it was Steve’s turn to sigh. “Yes Aunt Peggy, you have told me. I’m sure in no time I’ll be getting drunk and stealing things but right now I’m focusing on getting settled. It’s a pretty big change.”

“Steven Rogers you better cut the crap right now. Lie to yourself all you want but you can’t lie to me. You’re hiding. Stop hiding and start meeting people!”

Steve fell backwards, head thunking softly on his pillow, and threw an arm over his eyes.

“It’s not that easy Peggy.”

“Do I need to tell you another ‘back in my day story’? Because I will dear.”

“What am I supposed to do? Just walk up to some random person and say ‘hey, I know I look like a loser, and I am a loser, but do you wanna maybe hang out with me?’ I’m pretty sure I missed my chance to make friends when I spent two years at community college.”

Steve could practically hear the gears moving in his Aunts brain as she thought about how best to respond to him. They’d had this conversation before, though then it had been about his lack of friends when he was going to community college. His argument then had been that everyone was just so focused on trying to get out of there that they had no time for friends. Another lie. He just didn’t want to face the fact that he wasn’t capable of making and keeping friends.

“That’s the anxiety speaking dear and you know it.”

“Aunt Peggy I really don’t want to talk about this. Let’s talk about you. How is kick boxing going?”

She may be well into her 60s but his Aunt Peggy still worked hard and managed to accomplish whatever it was she set her mind to. 

“I know enough to come over there and drag your scrawny ass to the nearest bar and force you to interact with others your age instead of only talking to old farts on the phone while hiding in your room.”

“Look we both know that even if I talk to anyone as soon as they get to know that I’m weird and nerdy in addition to being a scrawny excuse for a person that they’ll leave.”

But of course Aunt Peggy wasn’t going to back down. “What about that game you used to play back at the comic shop in high school? The one where you pretend your some adventurer out to save the world?”

“What? Dungeons and Dragons? You really think the best way for me to make friends includes Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Why not? Then you will be meeting people who clearly have the same weird and nerdy tendencies as you. Seems like the perfect way to find new friends with common interests to me.”

Steve had to get up and get moving. He started pacing his room as he thought this through. He had really enjoyed playing Dungeons and Dragons at the comic shop. Oftentimes they had been a lot older than him but still they had been good friends to have during high school. Was this a good idea? Would there be people here who were even interested in playing some role-playing tabletop game?

While Steve had been pacing and thinking Aunt Peggy had continued her pitch. “I’m sure there are loads of people just like you who are looking for their nerdy friend group and are just too anxious to go out and find it. You could print up flyers and post them at coffee shops or wherever it is people post things these days.”

Steve paused in his pacing, barely containing his laughter at the idea of putting up a flyer for a Dungeons and Dragons group at a coffee shop. But, maybe that could work. And by work Steve meant it could get Aunt Peggy off his back about making friends while at the same time keeping the likelihood of him actually having to interact with others to a minimum. Plus, what if it did actually work? What if there were actually other college kids like him who were too anxious to find friends but also wanted to get together and be nerdy?

“Okay Aunt Peggy, sounds like a plan to me. I’ll make up a flyer and post it at a coffee shop.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Steve sets about making that flyer of his to get people to play Dungeons and Dragons with. Will he actually manage to hang it up anywhere?

Despite the fact that he was mostly hoping no one would ever so much as glance at his flyer, Steve put a lot of work into designing it.  He drew out a bunch of different characters around the edge of the paper.  There was a half-orc barbarian who was waving around a bloody great sword.  There was a Halfling rogue who was attempting to pick the pocket of a half elf ranger who had a bow strapped to their back.  A gnome artificer was tinkering away with some little metal creature it was creating while a druid stared at a beautiful stag.

As for the text of the flyer, well, that’s where he was running into a little trouble.  What do you even title this?  Lonely Nerd Looking for Other Lonely Nerds?  Dungeons and Dragons and Dorks?  No, he needed to keep it simple. 

 

**Want to Join a Dungeons and Dragons Campaign?**

 

Whether you’re an experienced player or brand new to the game you’re welcome to join me in a homebrew campaign!

 

This role-playing tabletop game lets you create any kind of character and backstory you want.  You can be a bloodthirsty barbarian or an anxious scholar. I will work with you to help create your characters and then create a unique adventure all for you. 

 

Interested?

 

Give me a call or shoot me an email at:

 

240-792-9087

stevengrogers@gmail.com

 

With the flyer done and printed the last step was taking it to a coffee shop.  This was another important part of his plan.  He wanted to choose a coffee shop that had a decent amount of customers but wasn’t necessarily a hot spot.  Was he overthinking this whole thing?  Yes, yes he was, but he didn’t care.  He still hadn’t quite decided whether he hoped this would work or prayed it would fail.

After some googling Steve thought he had found the perfect place.  It was a tiny coffee shop called Parliament, a shop that seemed to have an owl theme.  It was a really cute brick shop with owls painted on the windows.  It had good reviews and was far enough off campus that most students wouldn’t choose to go there first, but also not too far that he couldn’t walk there from his dorm.  Glasses on, inhaler in his pocket, and flyer in hand Steve was as ready as he’d ever be to head to Parliament. 

On the walk over he rehearsed what he would say so he wouldn’t sound totally inept.

Can I hang up this nerdy flyer?

Can I hang up a flyer asking for people to be my friend?

Can I put this up in your coffee shop where no one will ever see it?

Hey, I was wondering if I could hang up a flyer.  It’s kind of like this game night type of thing, I’m looking for people who might be interested in joining in.

That last one sounded the best to Steve but even then he was preparing for the people Parliament to laugh in his face or worse, rip up the flyer and throw him out.

When he arrived at the small coffee shop he realized that the pictures online did not do the owl theme justice.  The outside wasn’t too overpowering with owls, just a few cute pictures drawn on the windows.  The inside however took the owl theme to a whole new level.  Each table had a little wooden owl in the center.  The board with the orders had owls drawn all along the border in chalk.  The walls had photographs and illustrations of owls too.  Basically it was a whole lot of owls wherever you looked.

There, in the middle of the coffee shop was his goal.  A board on which were various flyers and signs for babysitters, tutoring, fitness instructors, and more.  He could do this, no big deal.  Just talk to the person behind the register, hang up the flyer, and leave.

The guy behind the register was wearing a brown apron that, surprise, had owls stitched on it.  Steve noticed just how tall the guy behind the counter seemed, that and his dark long hair before he squared his jaw and made his way in to the line.  Hey, I was wondering if I could hang up a flyer.  It’s kind of like this game night type of thing, I’m looking for people who might be interested in joining in.  Easy peasy, just say it like that and everything would be fine.

There were only two people in front of Steve but the line seemed to be moving at a snails pace.  One person left in front of him and Steve could feel his palms beginning to sweat.  He wiped them anxiously on his pants, being extra careful not to wrinkle the flyer.  Then it finally came time for Steve to talk to the guy behind the register.  “Welcome to Parliament.  What can I get you?”

And just like that, all the words flew out of Steve’s brain.  All his practicing suddenly seemed insufficient.  He hadn’t allowed himself time to focus on it before, trying to focus all his attention on hanging up his flyer, but the man in front of him was breathtaking.

Steve must’ve taken too long to answer because Register Guy asked again, “What’ll you have?”

“Right, yeah, so…coffee?”

“Coffee?” Register Guy asked, “Can you be more specific?”

“No.  Sorry, not coffee.  I have a flyer.”

Register Guy now just looked confused.  “Good for you.  If you don’t want coffee then what do you want?”

Dammit.  Steve knew he’d mess this up.  No turning back now though.  He put his flyer on the counter between them.  “I was wondering if I could hang up my flyer on your bulletin board.”

Register Guy looked taken aback but then, much to Steve’s embarrassment, took a long look at the flyer he’d made.  Now he was sure to make fun of him.  Whatever, as long as he got to hang up his flyer and tell Aunt Peggy that he’d done everything he could that was all that mattered.

“Did you draw these?” Register Guy asked, pointing to the pictures along the edges that Steve had meticulously added to make his sign interesting.

“Yeah, art major.”  Could he be any more inarticulate?

“These are really great!  Go ahead and hang this up.  I hope you find people to join in your game.”  Register Guy handed back his flyer and smiled down at him.

“Thanks.”  Steve said, turning to move out of line, ignoring the people glaring at him for holding up their coffee orders.

“You sure you don’t want anything?” Register Guy asked just as he thought he was making his escape.

“Uh no, thanks, I don’t really drink…” Steve couldn’t think of a way to end that sentence so he did the normal thing and turned and walked off toward the bulletin board as quickly as he could.  Finding a free pin he quickly tacked his flyer to the board and then hurried out of the shop, working very hard to keep his gaze forward instead of wandering back toward Register Guy...he didn't try hard enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's chapter 2. Hopefully it was ok. Comment if you like! Not sure when the next chapter will be up so keep an eye out for that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So....the flyer didn't exactly bring the response Steve had thought. But maybe all hope isn't lost.

The flyer did not work as Steve had thought it would. At best, he thought he’d get one message from one person who was interested. At worst, he thought he wouldn’t hear from anyone. Well, that’s not the worst that could happen.

“They sent me a dick pic Aunt Peggy, a dick pic!” Steve had been quit confused by the random number that had sent him a picture and hadn’t thought anything of it till he opened it, in class, and let out a shriek at the sight before him. 

“Well, how did you respond?” Aunt Peggy asked, not sounding the least bit shocked about the news that his flyer was leading to him receiving dick pics instead of people actually interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons.

“That I’d seen better and then I blocked the number,” Steve mumbled.

Aunt Peggy let out a booming laugh, “That’s my boy!”

“I’m going to take down the flyer. It’s not working. Experiment over. Now I can just go back to focusing on my art classes.”

Aunt Peggy sighed on the other end of the line, “I’m sorry dear. I had really thought that this would work.”

Aunt Peggy sounded genuinely upset by the fact that this plan hadn’t worked. Steve guessed that she had really gotten her hopes up that this would help him meet people. If he were being honest he had kind of started to think that too, before the first dick pic arrived. He didn’t like hearing the sadness in his Aunts voice. He needed to find a way to reassure her. 

“Maybe this is just a sign that you can’t force a friendship. I just have to be patient. Before you know it I’ll have more friends than I can count. I’m just not gonna find them through a flyer.”

“You’re right dear. I’m sure in no time at all you will be spending time with other art students, sipping tea and discussing the Mona Lisa.”

“Exactly,” Steve laughed, though deep inside he knew this wouldn’t be the case. But it was best to let Aunt Peggy have her hope instead of dashing it to pieces.

“Look I’ll call you back later Aunt Peggy. I’ve got a flyer to take down before any other immature college students get a stupid idea in their heads.”

“Alright dear, talk to you soon. Love you.”

“Love ya too Aunt Peggy!”

He needed to go back to Parliament to take down that flyer. Maybe Register Guy would be there. Should he try to talk to him? No, goodness what could he even say. ‘Hey my flyer didn’t work the way I wanted so I’m tearing it down and trying to forget this ever happened.’ No, that was a terrible plan. Just go in, rip down the flyer, and leave. No sweat.

***

Nope, he was definitely sweating. Register Guy was definitely behind the counter but now he seemed more like Barista Guy, in charge of getting the drinks ready while a redheaded lady took peoples orders. 

Parliament was fairly empty with just one person in line and one person at a table in the corner on their laptop. Taking a deep breath Steve made his way over to the bulletin board and, before he could think about it anymore, ripped down his flyer.

“Hey. You make a habit of tearing people’s flyers off bulletin boards?”

The lady behind the counter was glaring daggers at him. Thankfully Barista Guy was busy making a drink and didn’t seem to be paying attention to them.

“Well, when it’s my flyer in the first place then I don’t really see the problem.”

She just quirked an eyebrow at him like she was trying to assess how truthful he was being. She must have decided he was telling the truth because she called out to him, “What would you like?”

And if it wasn’t bad enough that he hadn’t managed to get in and out without anyone noticing, Barista Guy decided at that moment to make an appearance next to the lovely new Register Lady.

“Oh don’t bother Nat, this guy doesn’t drink,” he said teasingly. Then Barista Guy’s eyes landed on the flyer he was holding.

“You’re taking your flyer down? Did you get enough people to play your game with?”

Steve rubbed his free hand against his neck trying to find the right words that didn’t make him sound like such a loser.

“Yeah, it just wasn’t really working out. Not that I’m surprised.”

Barista Guy and new Register Lady, supposedly Nat, shared a look that seemed to hold an entire conversation. When they had finished whatever conversation they were having Barista Guy turned back to Steve.

“Could I take a look at your flyer again?”

“Uh sure.”

Steve stepped forward and handed his flyer over to Barista Guy. He looked it over for a minute before nodding his head as if he had come to a decision. 

“Hey so I had been talking about this with my roommates and I think we’d all be interested in playing this game of yours. We haven’t played before but it sounds pretty cool. Is three people enough for this?”

Barista Guy looked up at him and Steve was willing to agree to anything those grey eyes were asking for. 

“Yeah yeah that would be perfect.”

“Great,” Barista Guy smiled then held out his hand. “I’m Bucky.”

“Steve.” Steve grasped Barist- no Bucky’s warm hand and gave a firm shake. 

Bucky smiled as they let go. “Well Steve, looks like we’re going to be playing some Dungeons and Dragons together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for continuing to read this random story. Coming up there will be some actual dnd happening! Comment if you like!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woah, two chapter updates in one day?!?! 
> 
> Just a quick chapter introducing Bucky's point of view.
> 
> Do his roommates really want to play Dungeons and Dragons?

“Ow, ow ow,” Bucky cried as Natasha dragged him into their apartment by his ear. She let go once they were inside and Bucky rubbed his sore ear, glaring at the tiny redhead. 

“What was that for?” Bucky demanded.

“You know what it’s for,” she said over her shoulder as she continued on into the apartment. “Sam, get your sweet ass out here. We’ve got to yell at James.”

“What’d that idiot do now?” Sam called, rounding the corner and entering their living room. Sam looked like he’d been lounging around all day, which he probably had been the lucky bastard. 

Natasha and Sam claimed the couch, forcing Bucky to stand in front of them.

“Yes, idiot, what did you do now?” Natasha asked, leaning back into Sam who flung his arm across her shoulders allowing her to snuggle into the crook of his arm.

“I thought I was doing what you wanted me to do,” Bucky grumbled.

“I wanted you to ask the boy out not sign us all up for some nerdy game that none of us actually want to play.”

“You did what now?” Sam asked, looking between Bucky and Natasha, completely confused about what was going on.

“I was gonna ask him out but you saw him Nat, he looked so dejected about his flyer not working. I’m sorry I said we’d all play dungeons and whatever—“ 

“You said what now?” Sam yelled, eyes looking like they were about to pop out of his head.

“Look what can I do to get you two to play this game with us?” Bucky asked.

Natasha sat forward and stared Bucky down, “You’re in charge of laundry from now until we finish playing with your boy. Anything you want to add Sam?”

“Laundry and dishes for as long as we’re forced to do this. And how long will that be?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Bucky answered, plopping down on the floor in front of the couch, leaning against the coffee table. 

“Could be months,” Natasha said, looking down at her phone.

“Months?!” Bucky and Sam exclaimed at the same time.

“Seems like it. You apparently sit around a table for hours on end pretending to be different characters working toward some kind of goal or quest. This is going to suck.”

“Maybe we’ll only have to play until Bucky finally asks the boy out,” Sam said hopefully.

“You wanna make a wager on that?” Natasha asked, smirking.

“Sure. What are you thinking?”

“I bet that Bucky will never step up and ask the boy out,” Natasha said with a grin. 

“Hey!” Bucky said indignantly.

“Okay, how about the loser has to cook dinner for a month. I bet that Bucky will man up and ask the dude out before we get stuck playing some nerdy game for the rest of our lives,” Sam said after giving Bucky an appraising look.

“I am right here,” Bucky huffed.

“You can’t tell me you’re excited to play whatever it is you signed us up to play,” Sam said.

“Of course not," Bucky grit out, "but you should’ve seen the guy. He needs this. Can’t you guys just be good people for like two seconds and help somebody out?”

“Except it’ll be more like 6 months than 2 seconds, and that’s if we’re lucky,” Natasha added.

“I’m sorry okay. I panicked and he looked so sad. I already promised to do your dishes and laundry for the foreseeable future can we just leave it at that?” Bucky begged.

“Oh man, if you can’t handle the teasing now just you wait till we have to actually play this stupid game,” Sam laughed.

Bucky sighed, burying his head in his hands. Why hadn't he just asked the cute flyer guy out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the lovely comments. Hopefully you like this short chapter. I probably won't be able to update again till next weekend but we shall see. 
> 
> Comment if you like!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve attempts to help the roommates create their characters. They're a bit skeptical so let's see how this goes.

Steve stared at his phone, double checking the address that Bucky had sent him to that of the apartment building he was currently standing in front of. It matched. He was actually doing this. He was about to go to a very handsome man’s apartment to teach some strangers how to play Dungeons and Dragons. He had never imagined that thought would cross his mind.

The apartment was one of the technically campus apartments even though it was across a major intersection from the University. This led Steve to assume that all three members of the apartment were students like himself, which helped to ease the anxiety slightly, but not by much. 

The most pressing problem at the moment was the fact that it was a garden style apartment, meaning no elevator, and Bucky apparently lived on the fourth floor. This wouldn’t normally be a problem. Steve may generally be in poor health and shape but even he could manage several flights of stairs. The problem was he had gone a bit overboard with the stuff he had brought. 

He had figured that today they could focus on character creation but to do that he had placed two copies of the Player’s Handbook into his backpack along with multiple sets of dice. In the bag slung over his shoulder he had a bunch of character miniatures and paint supplies in case they wanted to paint their own character pieces. This all added up to a lot of weight on his small frame.

He could do it. It would be fine. Everything would be fine. They would find it super endearing that he went to so much trouble to set them up for the game. They wouldn’t find it weird or nerdy or ridiculously obsessive. He was most definitely not about to make a fool of himself in front of the handsome Barista Guy turned Bucky.

Not exactly feeling confident but definitely feeling determined Steve began the trek up the stairs. Flight One was no problem. Flight Two was hard but manageable with a break in-between. Flight Three felt like he was being stabbed in the lungs with every single movement. But he made it. He was wheezing, but he made it. 

He went and knocked on the door that hopefully belonged to Bucky while working to get his inhaler out of his pocket. He had just managed to get it out when the door opened.

“Hi Ste—oh shit. Are you okay?”

Steve didn’t really pay attention though. Just held up a finger in ‘wait a moment’ gesture and took a hit from his inhaler. When his breathing was more under control he looked up to see Bucky standing in the doorway.

“Heya Bucky!” Steve said, trying to ignore the fact Bucky had just seen him wheezing up a storm for simply walking up some steps.

“Are you okay?” Bucky asked again, stepping to the side to let Steve into the apartment.

“Oh yeah, never better. You?” Steve asked, hoping Bucky would go along with the whole moving past it thing.

“Jeez that’s a lot of stuff you brought. Do we need all of that to play?” Bucky asked, reaching forward to take the bag from Steve but Steve just stepped around him and headed toward the table that stood between the kitchen and the living room.

“I may have gone a little overboard with stuff but since you said you’re all new at this I wanted to give you all as many options as possible.” Steve set his stuff on the table and turned back to Bucky. “So where are your roommates?”

“Off being gross,” Bucky said sitting down at the table.

“Oh, okay, well I guess we can –“ Steve started to say but was interrupted when a very handsome man entered the room.

“Barnes you spreading lies out here?”

“Not a lie Sam. You and Nat do unspeakable things in this apartment. Just trying to make sure our guest is well aware before he’s scarred for life,” Bucky shot back.

Steve was trying to figure out something to say when in walked the lovely redhead from Parliament. 

“Ah Steve, good to see you again.” The lovely redhead remembered his name. And was Bucky’s roommate. One of Bucky’s two, beautiful roommates. How did this all happen again?

“You too, ah—“ Steve stumbled over her name, knowing he had heard Bucky say it but also wanting to say the correct name.

“Natasha,” she kindly provided upon seeing Steve struggling. “So boys, how are we gonna do this?”

“Well, I was thinking we could all start at the table. I can kind of give you an overview of your character options and then we get to the real fun part!” Though Steve was still a bit anxious about being in a room of strangers he was excited that he got to share the game he was passionate about with others.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” asked Sam who was leaning against the table.

“Rolling lots of dice!” Steve said excitedly. He got to work pulling out the player’s handbook and the miniatures he had brought so he missed the glares exchanged by Sam and Natasha toward Bucky who simply shrugged his shoulders and gave them a pleading look.

When Steve next looked up everyone was seated at the table. Sam and Bucky were on either side and Natasha was at the head. Steve took the last remaining seat, thumping the Player’s Handbook in the middle of the table.

“This book right here has pretty much everything you need to know about the game. I brought my copy plus this copy that I got for all of you to share.” Everyone at the table seemed slightly taken aback by this comment. Bucky was staring at him with wide eyes.

“You didn’t need to get us a copy of the rulebook Steve,” Bucky finally said.

“Maybe not but I wanted too, plus this will make it easier to create characters so we’re not all fighting over the book.” This time Steve did notice a glance between Sam and Natasha but he wasn’t sure what they were trying to say to each other.

“I hope I didn’t overstep but I also got you each your own set of dice!” Steve pulled out three clear cases with multicolored dice. One set was green with gold flecks, one set was blue with silver flecks, and one set was red with black flecks. “You’re going to have to fight for the color you want.”

“Wow. Uh, thanks dude,” Sam said, reaching out for the green set. Natasha quickly swiped the red set for herself with a mumbled thanks, leaving the blue set for Bucky.

“So, how does this all work? What do we need to do?” Bucky asked.

“First up, character creation,” Steve said, privately reviewing how he planned to say everything in his mind before continuing. “So you need to choose your race and your class. For your race think like, Lord of the Rings. You could be an Elf, a Halfling, a Dwarf, a human, and a whole bunch of other cool races. You might want to look through the book to see the benefits of each race or you could just choose based on what you feel like playing, whatever floats your boat.”

Steve looked around the table seeing a lot of dazed faces. This wasn’t exactly going the way he had thought. Bucky and his roommates didn’t seem nearly as excited about this as he was. Did they change their minds?

Natasha reached across the table and grabbed the book, flipping through to look at the different races, breaking the silence that had fallen over the table. Bucky turned to Steve, “I think I just want to play a human if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course! This is all about what kind of character you want to play. You get to make everything up about them, if you want to be a human then go for it.” Steve looked over at Sam who was peering at the book while Natasha flipped through it.

“I think I’d like to play an Elf but does that mean I have to play a super pasty and pale dude or what?” Sam asked, looking at the illustrations in the book.

“You can be whatever you want. You want to play an Elf of color then go for it. This is all about imagination. If you think it we can usually make it happen.” Steve wasn’t sure if he was doing a good job explaining things but everyone seemed more relaxed and they were finally getting somewhere.

“I’m going to play a Halfling,” Natasha said, pushing the book back to the middle of the table.

“So you’re playing yourself then,” Sam teased only to receive a sharp slap against the back of the head from Natasha. 

“Just you wait boys, I’m about to win this game with my Halfling, they’re lucky.”

“I love playing Halflings for that exact reason!” Steve exclaimed, feeling more at ease now that it seemed like everyone was getting into it. Everyone except for Bucky who just seemed confused and possibly uncomfortable, it was hard for Steve to tell and he didn’t really want to dwell on it.

“So, now that we know your races we need to choose your classes. This is like your profession. You can be a fighter, a paladin, a monk, a bard, a rogue, a cleric, a wizard, and a bunch of other things. Again, you might want to look through the book and read the descriptions to see what matches the kind of character you want to play.”

Natasha and Sam both fought over who could grab the Player’s Handbook first. Natasha won. They both looked through the various pages, stopping to read the descriptions every once in a while. Bucky on the other hand continued to look uncomfortable and confused.

Steve pulled out his own copy of the Player’s Handbook and held it out toward Bucky. “Do you want to take a look?” Did that sound pathetic? It kind of sounded pathetic to his ears. He just wanted to make sure that Bucky was having fun with this. Bucky still hadn’t answered and was just staring at the book in front of him without moving to take it.

“I’m sorry,” Steve said, pulling the book back, “This was too much at once wasn’t it? I should’ve taken more time to explain how this all works, goodness you must be so confused right now.”

“No!” Bucky exclaimed, hand shooting forward to stop Steve from stuffing his book back into his bag. “It’s just, can’t I just be some kind of character who just does a lot of killing or whatever. I gotta be honest here, I want to play but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to follow all the rules and whatnot. I kinda just want to play a super, straightforward type of character, you know?”

Steve couldn’t take his eyes off of Bucky. Bucky hadn’t seemed too excited about all of this before but now Steve wondered if it was more anxiety about not really knowing how it all worked.

“No worries. You can be a human fighter, pretty straight forward tank type of character. You can just go in and attack first ask questions later if you want.”

Bucky seemed to melt in relief. “Awesome, that sounds perfect.”

Steve never wanted to take his eyes off of Bucky ever again. He wanted to memorize the soft, slight smile that graced his face. He wanted to memorize the way he ducked his head as if he could make his bangs hide his face even though they weren’t nearly long enough. He wanted to memorize the way he was biting at his lip. Wait, he was biting at his lip? What?

Steve quickly took his eyes off of Bucky trying to look anywhere but at him. He wanted to forget everything he had just seen. No way would that ever happen. He was just there to teach Bucky and his roommates how to play Dungeons and Dragons and to run a game for them. Nothing more.

“I think I’m gonna be a Paladin. They sound badass plus they can heal which seems like something we could use on our team,” Sam said. “What about you Nat?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she replied smirking at Sam’s annoyed expression.

“Great!” Steve said, trying to forget Bucky's smile and bangs and lip biting, “Time to roll some stats!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that was a good bit of technical stuff, next chapter everyone will have their characters created and we'll see if they can manage to actually play or not.
> 
> Comment if you like!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is making them write backstories for their characters...backstories?!?!?!?

“Sorry we didn’t get a chance to paint the uh, pieces.”

“No worries, we actually got a lot accomplished today.  Are you sure everyone’s fine with me just going ahead and choosing their miniatures and painting them?”  Steve asked as they trudged down the stairs.

Bucky had insisted on accompanying Steve claiming it was 'cause the elevators broke' but really more because he was unable to shake the image of Steve at his door barely able to breath.  Though, if Bucky was being completely honest, his reasons for walking Steve down were much more selfish.

“I’m sure they’ll like whatever you choose.”

“I might wait and choose after you all send me your character’s backstories.  I wanna make sure your miniatures really match your characters personalities!”

Bucky might not understand this game, at all, but goddamn the excitement that Steve had over tiny little metal dudes was pretty infectious.  Bucky was sure Steve didn’t realize it but every time he started to talk about the game, whether it was going through the rules or just describing the different dice, his entire face lit up.  He’d do anything to keep that face lit up like that.

Despite taking it slowly they reached the bottom of the stairs quicker than Bucky would have liked.

“So I guess I’ll see you next weekend then?” Steve asked as he hiked the bag up higher on his shoulders.

“Yeah definitely we’ll see you next weekend.  Same time same place.”

Silence stretched between them then, Bucky barely stopping himself from rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.  Steve seemed to be in much the same boat as him, shifting from foot to foot.

“Okay, yeah, okay just make sure you all email me your backstories before then so I can figure out what kind of story would be best for all of you.”

“Right, we’ll get right on that.”  Steve turned as if to start walking away but Bucky couldn’t let that happen yet.  “You know, we might have some questions about it, or uh you might have some questions for us.  What I’m trying to say is Nat and I work most afternoons at Parliament so feel free to drop in anytime, even though you don’t drink.”

Steve smiled at him and Bucky just about crumbled.  “I’ll have to take you up on that.  Maybe you could even introduce me to a drink I’ll actually like.”

And just like that Steve turned and walked away, while Bucky was there frozen to the spot.  Unable to control his smile Bucky made his way back up to the apartment as soon as Steve was out of sight.

He entered the apartment and his smile immediately dropped at the glares he was receiving from his roommates who were still sitting at the table with their character sheets in front of them.

“I agreed to sit at a table once a week and play pretend.  I didn’t agree to doing extra work in between.  Why we gotta write backstories for our characters?  What the fuck even is this game?”  Sam yelled out, throwing his pencil at Bucky who was unable to dodge it as it bounced off his chest.

“It won’t be that bad.  I think this is the only time we’ll have extra stuff to do outside of game day.”

“Have you looked at these questions yet man?  There are 20 fucking questions!  Let me just read out a few for you; what are their emotional characteristics?  What were the defining moments in their life? Do they have any secrets?  What was their childhood like? And perhaps my personal favorite, what are their hobbies?”

Bucky moved to take a seat at the table across from Nat and Sam.  “Yeah, that’s, that’s a lot.  Maybe you can just like, google it.”

“Steve seemed to feel pretty strongly that you should flesh out your character prior to next time.  When did he want us to email him these again, by Wednesday?” Nat asked.

“Yeah, he needs it so he can like, make up the game or something.  I still don’t really understand what’s going on.”

“And that my friend,” said Sam, standing up and moving behind Bucky, placing an arm around his shoulders, “is why you should’ve just asked the guy out instead of doing this round about shit to gain his love and affection.”

“You two aren’t bailing on me are you?” Bucky asked feeling slightly panicked.

“Not yet,” Nat said, turning her glare toward Sam now who, even though Bucky couldn’t see, was surely making a face at that.  “Now if I’m not mistaken, you’ve got some laundry you need to get started on.”

***

Steve had dropped his stuff off at his dorm room and then gone back out to get some groceries.  After completing that he slumped down on his bed and pulled up his email.  He was surprised to see an email from none other than Natasha.

 

Steve,

Here are my answers to your questions.  See you Saturday.

Natasha

P.S. These answers are for your eyes only.  Don't betray my trust in you.

 

Steve felt incredibly excited as he opened up the attachment entitled Backstory.

 

  1. What’s their name?



Prym

 

  1. Do they have any nicknames?



~~No~~

 

  1. How old are they?



~~38~~

 

  1. What are their physical characteristics (clothing/equipment)



Prym wears dark colors.  Fitted black pants and a black vest.  She has ~~hidden pockets woven on the inside of her clothes~~. She carries at least ~~5 daggers~~ at all times.  ~~Two are hidden in her hair.  Two are strapped to her forearms.  One is visible on her hip.~~

 

  1. What are their secondary characteristics (accent, tone of voice, mannerisms, ticks)



Prym is a ~~chameleon~~.  Depending on the situation s ~~he takes on different mannerisms and accents.~~   Usually she will speak with a British accent.  She tends to speak softly.  She does ~~play with her hair,~~ but she does it as a way to ~~distract from what her other hand is doing.~~

 

  1. What are their emotional characteristics (are they prone to getting angry/laid back/investigative/despondent)



Prym tends to be very level headed.  If the situation deals ~~with the harming of children though,~~ she will ~~lose her shit and~~ kill everyone in sight.

 

  1. What is their motivation?



When she was younger she saw ~~a lot of bad things happen to children around her,~~ as well as bad things ~~happen to her.~~   She and others were ~~kidnapped and trained~~ against their ~~wills to be killing~~ machines.  Now she works to make sure that doesn’t happen to any other child ever again.

 

  1. What are their character flaws?



She has no flaws ~~, visible to those around her.  On a personal level though she trusts no one.  She may act like she trusts people but deep down she is waiting for them to betray her and this makes it difficult for her to interact with people.~~

 

  1. What were the defining moments from their life?



When she was taken ~~from her parents as a child.~~   When she escaped from imprisonment.  When she killed ~~most of the people responsible for her capture and training.~~   When the leader ~~slipped through her grasp and she wasn’t able to punish him~~ like she wanted to.

 

  1. What do they most fear?



She is not scared of anything ~~, accept for people seeing through her mask and realizing that she is scared all the time of being captured again and being in a position where she is not in control of herself.~~

 

  1. Do they have any secrets?



Yes.

 

  1. If they do have secret, who have they told?



No one who is still alive.

 

  1. Where are they from?



She was born in ~~Vineshade~~.

 

  1. What was their childhood like?



What childhood?  See previous responses.

 

  1. Who are their parents/siblings/significant others?



Her mother’s name is Callie.  Her father’s name is Finras.

 

  1. What is the status of their family?



Her mother is dead and she is working on finding ~~and killing~~ her father ~~as he was the one who sold her and other Halfling children into a life as child soldiers.~~

 

  1. What’s their profession/hobbies?



She has no official profession.  She does ~~work as a thief/assassin~~ but only ~~kills and steals from~~ people that she has deemed are deserving of being ~~killed.~~

 

  1. What are their personal beliefs/ideologies?



Love is for children.

 

  1. What are their favorite foods and drinks?



Belbuck and Luiren Spring Cheese.

 

  1. What are they looking to get out of the adventure?



Revenge.

 

Steve was smiling from ear to ear, it looks like this group was going to keep him on his toes.  This was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, okay I disappeared there for a while. Really sorry about that. I wish I could use work as an excuse but honestly it was more just my anxiety acting up and making everything I wrote seem unacceptable. Took a vacation and got my head back on straight for now so hopefully I will get back to updating regularly. 
> 
> Thanks to those of you who have been commenting recently. It's always a great motivator and it is just always amazing to hear peoples thoughts and ideas. Hopefully this doesn't disappoint. I think next up we'll actually get some dungeons and dragons game play!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's anxiety is acting up as he worries that Sam and Bucky don't actually want to play anymore seeing as neither have sent him their character backstories. He decides to find out what's going on.

Wednesday came and Steve was freaking out a bit.  He had yet to hear from Sam or Bucky about their character's backstories.  Had they decided that they didn’t actually want to play?  Had he been so off-putting that they decided they just didn’t want to play with him?

When he told Aunt Peggy his worries about how he must have made them change their minds she had a different take on things.

“Have you talked to them since you were all together?”

“Well, no.”

“Do you think maybe they just haven’t done this before and aren’t sure how?  Or maybe they’re busy with work and school and are just being normal college students who are procrastinating to the last minute?  And finally, did you ever consider texting them to find out?”

Steve sighed, damn Aunt Peggy and her logical mind.  “No, you know I haven’t texted any of them.”

“And don’t you think that if you reached out to them you would find out why they hadn’t responded to you instead of you letting your anxious brain come up with all these ridiculous scenarios where it’s somehow all your fault.”

“But, then I’ll just seem like I’m nagging them,” Steve argued, already feeling a bit nervous at the prospect of messaging Bucky.  And Sam.  Messaging Bucky and Sam.

“Steven you are trying to create a magical fantasy world for these people.  They need to respect your deadlines.  Checking up on that is not you nagging it’s you offering help if they need it.”

“You’re always so rational about things Aunt Peggy.”

Peggy’s laugh rang through the phone, “Honestly dear I speak from experience.  Learn from my mistakes and don’t overthink this.  Message them and offer help.  You’ll see, everything will work out.”

“Thanks Aunt Peggy, I love you.”

“Love you too Steven.  Good luck.”

Steve stared at his phone after hanging up with Aunt Peggy.  He would start with Sam.  It should be easy.  Just a quick message asking how his character backstory was going.  Sam wouldn’t think he was a terrible, nagging person because of it.  It’d all be fine.

 

To Sam

Hey Sam!  I just wanted to check in to see how your character is coming along.  Do you need any help?

 

That sounded fine right?  Right?  Well too late cause Steve had already sent it, and Sam had already read it, and was already responding.  Shit, he was about to be yelled at over text message for being a pain.

 

From Sam

Steve! Sorry for being so late with the whole character thingy.  I just emailed it to you.  I didn’t fill out everything and my answers were kind of short.  Hope that’s fine.

 

To Sam

Not a problem!  I’m sure whatever you filled out is perfect.  Plus you’ll learn more about your character as we play.  Thanks!

 

Steve checked his email and was happy to find that Sam had in fact just emailed his questionnaire and that he really wasn’t kidding when he said it wasn’t completely filled out and his answers were short.

 

  1. What’s their name?



Shawn

 

  1. Do they have any nicknames?



No

 

  1. How old are they?



Elf equivalent to 25

 

  1. What are their physical characteristics (clothing/equipment)



Tall. Dark skinned.

 

  1. What are their secondary characteristics (accent, tone of voice, mannerisms, ticks)



Southern

 

  1. What are their emotional characteristics (are they prone to getting angry/laid back/investigative/despondent)



Calm

 

  1. What is their motivation?



Money

 

  1. What are their character flaws?



 

  1. What were the defining moments from their life?



 

  1. What do they most fear?



Spiders

 

  1. Do they have any secrets?



Probably

 

  1. If they do have secret, who have they told?



His dad.

 

  1. Where are they from?



 

 

  1. What was their childhood like?



Long.

 

  1. Who are their parents/siblings/significant others?



 

 

  1. What is the status of their family?



Alive and well somewhere.

 

  1. What’s their profession/hobbies?



Carpenter.

 

  1. What are their personal beliefs/ideologies?



He’s a Paladin so I guess he believes in some god or something.

 

  1. What are their favorite foods and drinks?



Alcohol, lots of alcohol.

 

  1. What are they looking to get out of the adventure?



Money.

 

Really not as filled out as he had hoped but Steve could work with this.  It especially made his happy to see that everyone was choosing accents for their characters.  This would be fun!  Now just to figure out what was going on with Bucky’s backstory.

Steve stared at his phone for a few minutes.  He considered just copying the message he’d sent to Sam and sending that to Bucky but that didn’t seem right.  He looked over at the clock.  It was 5 so Bucky should be at work at Parliament.  Maybe he could go visit and ask him in person how things were going.  And he could bring his laptop in case Bucky needed help doing it.  Before he could talk himself out of it Steve threw his laptop in a bag and started the trek to Parliament.

***

The week was only half way over.  ONLY half way over.  Between all the papers and projects he had to finish up, not to mention work, Bucky had no time to think of anything else.  Thankfully there was a lull in the customers at Parliament and Bucky was about to go on his break.  Which is of course when the door opened and in walked Steve, bag slung over one shoulder.

Bucky hadn’t realized he had frozen in place till Nat was pushing him to the other side of the counter.

“Go take your break with your boy.”

Bucky was about to protest but Nat was already at the register, moving cups and lids around to look busy.  He turned back to see Steve standing a couple feet away, hands twisting the strap of his bag.  Bucky wiped his hands on his apron, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the brown apron with cartoony owls embroidered all over it.  He only just barely stopped himself from running his hands over his head to check that his hair was still pulled back in a bun, he didn’t want to seem like he was nervous to talk to Steve.

“Steve.  Did you come to try a couple of drinks?”  Did that sound lame?  That sounded lame.  Was he always this lame sounding?

“Hiya Bucky,” Steve seemed to realize his hands were twisting the strap of his bag as he suddenly dropped them to his side.  Bucky waited for Steve to continue but Steve seemed stuck.

“You wanna grab a seat somewhere?  I’m on my break.”  Steve didn’t respond but he moved and grabbed a small table by the window.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this dreary Wednesday?”  Dreary?  Who says dreary? Just what?

“I just wanted to stop in and say hi,” Steve said, but he seemed to wince as soon as the words were out of his mouth, as if that wasn’t exactly what he wanted to say.  Bucky could definitely relate to that feeling.

“Well I’m glad you came to say hi.  We’re still on for this weekend right?”

“Yeah, actually that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about.  Have you worked on your character’s backstory yet?”

Bucky ducked his head to hide his own wince cause of course he had completely forgotten about that.  “I’m sorry man I honestly completely forgot about that.  Can I get it to you after work today?” 

He expected Steve to be upset, annoyed, frustrated, hell maybe even angry with him, but when he looked up Steve was smiling at him. 

“No worries.  If you have time now, I actually brought my computer with me.  We can just chat about your character and I can type it up.  If that’s fine with you?”

“Yeah, yeah I have time.  That’s awesome.  You really don’t have to do this Steve I should’ve been more on top of things.  It just kind of slipped through the cracks.  Not because I don’t think it’s important.  Of course it’s important but just because…”

Sparks.  He had never realized that someone’s touch, just the light touch of someone’s hand on his could cause electricity to race through his entire body.  Steve was smiling at him, his hand resting lightly on top of his own.

“Really, Bucky, it’s not a problem.  I get it.  Between college and work it’s amazing you have any time to play at all.  This is literally the least I could do for you.”

And just like that he pulled his hand away.  The touch was gone but the warmth remained.  Steve was fumbling with his bag, working to get his laptop out and all Bucky could think about was how he wanted to grab his hand back and just sit there, hand in hand with him.

“So, let’s start simple.  What do you want your character’s name to be?”

Jolted back out of his daydream Bucky panicked a bit.

“Um, Bucky.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at him.  “You want your character’s name to just be your name?”

Bucky could tell that that was not exactly the answer Steve had wanted but his mind was completely blank and he couldn’t think of any names except his own and Steve’s and there was no way he was going to name his fictional character Steve.

“Yeah?”

Steve just shrugged his shoulders and typed it down.  “At least your name will be easy to remember.  Okay, next question, does Bucky have any nicknames?”

“Bucky is the nickname.”

“Okay, what’s it a nickname for?”

“Buchanan.  James Buchanan.”

“Ah makes sense,” Steve said, looking back at the laptop.  “So what if we say your character’s name is James, and his nickname is Bucky?”

“Works for me,” Bucky said, feeling like he was failing at the whole character creation thing but not really caring because Steve just seemed so excited about the whole thing.

“Alright, how old is your character?”

“22.”

“And what is James’ physical characteristics?  Like how he looks, what he wears, what equipment he has?”

“Um, I guess he’s tall, dark hair.  I don’t really know what he would wear or have.  He’s like a fighter right?  So armor.” 

Steve typed everything out and seemed happy enough with his answer.

“Great!  Now secondary characteristics.  Does James have an accent or any specific mannerisms?”

“No.”

Steve looked up from the laptop at that.  “No?”

“Am I supposed to have an accent?” Bucky asked, concerned he’d messed everything up.

“No, no, it’s your character you can make him however you want.  But I do think it’s a good idea to create a voice for your character.  It just makes it easier for me and the others to know when it’s Bucky the dnd character talking vs when real life Bucky who’s talking.”

Well, shit, that made sense but he couldn’t do any accents.  Not well at least.

Nat suddenly called out from behind the counter, “He can do a pretty good Russian accent, you should do that.”

Damn her, just, damn her.  But of course Steve lit up even brighter at that and was looking at him with such a hopeful look that he couldn’t say no.

“Sure, fine, Russian it is.”

They moved through the next questions fairly quickly, aka Bucky asked to skip a bunch of the questions because he had no idea how to answer them.  He felt proud of himself when he made up an answer to the question about what does he fear, stating cold and enclosed spaces.  He also decided that his character wouldn’t have any living relatives and that as a hobby he would like to hunt. 

He was honestly having some fun with this.  It was hard, trying to come up with an entire character so he kept finding himself just answering the questions as he would in real life.  Steve didn’t seem to mind though.  He just typed down his answers and every once in a while he would look up and their eyes would meet and Bucky would feel like all the air had been sucked out of the room. 

Steve was something else.  Why hadn’t he just asked this man out?  This amazing man who was so excited about a fantasy game.  This man who hadn’t been angry with him for forgetting to do his questionnaire.  This man who was taking time out of his life to sit here and walk him through the process.  This man was perfect.

“Alright, final question!” Steve said, “What is Bucky looking to get out of this adventure?”

“Love.”

What? Oh god, what?  He hadn't fully processed the question before the word just slipped out of his mouth.  Steve was staring, eyes bulging at him while behind the counter Natasha was laughing unabashedly.

“Really?” Steve asked, turning his eyes so they were locked on the laptop screen instead of looking at Bucky, which Bucky was very grateful for.

Couldn’t turn back now could he?  There was no way to fix this.  There was also no way he could tell Steve what he was really thinking.

“Yeah, um Bucky, James, just wants to find someone he can depend on you know.  So, yeah, he’s looking for love on the adventure.  Is that okay?”

Was it his imagination or were Steve’s cheeks turning pink?  “Sure, sure, of course it’s fine.  People find love in dnd all the time.  This will make the story all the more interesting.  Um, that’s the last question and I’m sure your break is over so I’m just going to, I’m going to go.”  Steve stood and struggled to get his laptop into his bag again.  “I’ll see you on Saturday,” Steve said before all but running out of Parliament.

When Steve was gone Bucky just slumped and banged his head on the table.

“Hey lover boy, get your ass back here, break time’s over.”

Bucky banged his head once more on the table for good measure, what was wrong with him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I started this all I thought Bucky would be the least anxious of the two...somehow my anxious brain has made both these poor boys ridiculously awkward and anxious.
> 
> So I lied last time about there being actual game play in this chapter but next time for sure they'll get started with their campaign!
> 
> Comment if you like!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the adventure begins!! Time to join these dorks as they navigate their first adventure together!

“Okay, so everyone has their character sheets, their dice, and their miniatures right?”

The day had finally arrived, it was time to play some Dungeons and Dragons!  They were once again gathered at Bucky’s table.  Nat sat across from him with Bucky and Sam on either side.  Steve had already set up his stuff, putting up his dungeon master screen that he had designed himself.  He was both hoping that they would notice and half hoping that they wouldn’t.  He had drawn their characters all over the screen.  Nat’s rogue sneaking off into the shadows, lurking with daggers at the ready.  Sam’s paladin, flask in hand, shrieking in terror at the giant spider that dropped down in front of him.  And finally, and possibly the most detailed, Bucky’s fighter, standing at the top of a hill surrounded by enemies but seeming to be completely in control.  Sword in hand, sun at his back, slain enemies at his feet he seemed to be the most imposing of all.

“I gotta be honest man, I still have no idea what we do in this game,” Sam said, pushing his green dice around in front of him.

“No worries, honestly it’ll make a lot more sense once we get started.  This is going to start off pretty role play heavy so I’ll give you a situation and you need to say whatever you think your character would say.”  Steve shuffled through his papers, making sure he had everyone’s stats written down.  “Oh, and don’t forget your character voices!  I can’t wait to hear all your accents.”

“Wait, we actually gotta talk with that accent, I thought that was just something I needed to write down, not do?”  Sam exclaimed.

Steve felt his smile begin to waver.  Well, this wasn’t exactly moving as smoothly as Steve had thought it would.  Oh goodness what had he done to mess this up already?

“Um, well you don’t have to it’s just helpful to show when you’re talking versus when your character is talking.  But it’s really up to you I guess, you can do whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“Just do the accent Sam,” Bucky growled.

“Oh yeah," Sam smirked, "I will if you will.”

“We’re all doing the fucking accents.  Now can we please just get started,” Natasha snarled, slamming her hand down on the table causing all the miniatures to shake.

Steve took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves then plastered a smile back on his face.  “Great, okay, let’s get started then.  The town of Doncaster has seen better days.  Sadly no one alive can remember those better days.  Once you enter the town it’s as if you’ve stepped from day into night.  Everything is dark and grim.  The houses are made out of stone, which is good because each house also seems to be burnt and covered in ash.  The cobbled streets are filled with trash and dung.  Each of you entered Doncaster separately but all of you end up at the same house, the one and only house made out of wood in this entire city.  Not only is this small house made out of wood but it is also the cleanest property in the entire city.  The ash and dirt and grim stops, almost as if it hit a barrier around the house.  Though you came here separately you all reach this small, out of place, house at the same time.  You were each summoned by a short note asking for your services and skills.  It was signed simply with the letter C.  Now that you are all here, what do you do?”

Steve looked up from his notes to find varying types of stares leveled his way.  Bucky seemed confused, his eyebrows drawn in, causing an adorable furrow in his brow.  Adorable?  Furrow?  Focus Steve, focus.  Natasha seemed to be considering the situation presented while Sam seemed to go from shocked to, impressed? 

“Hot damn Steve did you make that all up?” Sam asked, leaning forward, resting his elbows on the table.

“Yeah,” Steve replied, wanting to add on a snarky comment.  “That’s kind of my job.”  Oops, the snarky comment happened before he could stop it.

“Cool, cool, okay um, hey Nat, what do you want to do?” Sam asked, turning to Natasha.

“Prym ignores the two idiots at the door and starts walking around the house, trying to see if she can figure out why it’s so clean.  Is it against a wall or can she walk all the way around?”

“Oh here,” Steve had almost forgotten about the town map.  He pulled out the map he had drawn up and placed it on the table.  He moved their miniatures so they were surrounding a small house toward the norther end of the town. 

“Woah Steve, did you draw this?” Bucky asked, staring down at the map on the table.

“Yep," Steve replied proudly.

“That’s awesome Steve!”  Oh goodness Bucky was staring at him with this smile on his face and Steve was staring right back until he realized he was staring for too long.

Clearing his throat Steve turned back to Natasha and said, “You are able to walk all the way around the house.  How about you do a perception check?”

Steve smiled to himself as Natasha confidently grabbed her 20 sided die, rolled it and then added her perception skill number. 

She sighed before saying, “I got an 8.”

“Okay,” Steve said, “You really don’t notice much of anything.  It’s a clean house, cleaner than the other houses, but that’s about all you notice.  Is anybody else doing anything or are you two just standing there silently staring at the door?  Remember you two don’t know each other.  All you know is that you got a letter to come here.”

“I got this,” Sam said, clearing his throat and switching to a deep, southern accent, “Howdy there my good sir, what brings you to this neck of the woods?”

The furrow was back on Bucky’s forehead.  “Hello?”  Bucky suddenly winced then turned to glare at Natasha who simply quirked an eyebrow at him. 

“Ugh, fine,” Bucky said, before switching to a really good Russian accent.  “Hello there.  Um, I assume we are here for the same thing?”

“Well my good sir I don’t rightly know how you can assume such a thing.  If you tell me what you are here for then I will tell you what I am here for?”

Steve was happy when Bucky started to speak again, this time sounding more sure of himself.  “I have a different idea.  How about you tell me first and then I’ll tell you?”

Steve was loving this, they were actually getting into it!  They were already starting to embrace talking like their characters, maybe not exactly acting like how they had described them but still, they were actually getting into the game.  It was really a huge relief because Steve had pretty much convinced himself that no one would enjoy what he had planned and that everything would fall apart within the first five minutes.

Steve watched as Natasha rolled her eyes then yelled over Bucky and Sam who were continuing to go back and forth on who would talk first.  “I open the door and walk in.”

“What Nat?  You can’t do that, can she do that?” Sam turned to Steve who simply nodded and turned back to Natasha.

“Roll a reflex check.”

Nat did as she was told, “19.”

Steve rolled his own 20 sided die behind his screen so no one could see.  He rolled a 6. 

“A dagger comes flying at you but you easily dodge it.  Do you want to describe what it looks like when you dodge the dagger?”

With a glint in her eye Natasha asked “Can Prym catch the dagger?”

Steve thought for a moment, “You know what, sure, you got a 19, I say go for it.”

Natasha smiled, “Prym steps neatly to the side and just as the dagger is about to go past her, she reaches out her left hand and just grabs it.  Since she stepped to the side, if the dagger had kept going it would have slammed into Bucky’s stomach.”

Sam snickered while Bucky complained, “Why would it be my stomach?”

Ignoring him Natasha asked, “Who’s in this room?  Prym is going to hold the dagger as if she’s getting ready to throw it at whoever threw it at her.”

“Inside this small house stands a tiny gnome, even smaller than Prym.  They are wearing a cream colored blouse with long sleeves that flare at the end.  They’re also wearing a long, light pink skirt. In their hand is another dagger but upon noticing you all they immediately drops it to the table in front of them and walks around toward you all.” 

Steve then switches so his voice is just slightly higher.  “They say ‘Oh, oh goodness, oh no, oh wow.  Sorry, so sorry I didn’t know it was you.  You really can’t just open people’s doors like that!’”

“Yes, well you shouldn’t leave your door unlocked,” Natasha says, adopting the British accent of Prym.

“True, true, good point.  Come in, come in everyone, we have a lot to discuss.”

Natasha responds first, “Prym walks in but doesn’t return the dagger, she adds it to her belt.”

Sam speaks next, “Shawn walks in and leans against a wall.”

Steve turns to Bucky waiting to hear what he’s doing. Bucky’s staring back at him, really staring, and then seems to remember what he’s supposed to be doing.  “Oh uh, I walk in and stand by the table.”

“Great,” Steve said, once again happy that, though a bit rocky, Bucky seemed to be getting into the game.  “The gnome walks over, closing and locking the door behind you all.  They turn back to you all and say.  ‘Oh am I glad you all answered my letter, I wasn’t sure you would.”

“Yes, well it is certainly a pleasure to meet you.  My name is Shawn and I must admit that I am right curious about what you need my help for.”  Sam leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms, fully embodying his character.

“Of course, of course, we will talk about that for sure.  But first sit, sit, make yourselves comfortable please.  Have you all introduced yourselves to each other?”  

Bucky and Sam shook their head no while Natasha let out a frustrated sigh.

“Prym hops up and sits on the table, grabs the dagger the gnome left there and starts twirling it between her fingers, then introduces herself.”

“Shawn sits down, and with a little wave, introduces himself.”

Steve looks over at Bucky, waiting for his answer.  “Oh, uh, I walk over to the gnome and hold out my hand.”  He switches to his Russian accent.  "Hello, my name is Bucky."

Steve smiles, “They grab your hand and give it a firm shake.  They say, ‘it is an absolute pleasure to meet you Bucky.  It's a pleasure to meet all of you.  My name is Calder.  Are all of you ready to become very, very rich?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that was okay! I was debating how much to include the rolling and what not or if I should just turn it into a straight narrative. Hopefully this worked. Like the dork I am I went through and made up everyone's character sheets with stats and all and literally rolled dice to get the numbers used in this chapter. The fun thing about dungeons and dragons is how dice rolls and completely change what the dungeon master wants to happen so that's kind of how I'm planning out this dungeon. I have main points I want to happen but actual rolls will determine how situations play out if that makes sense.
> 
> Anyway, leave a comment if you like! I love hearing from everyone and it always brightens up my day.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's keep the dungeons and dragons going. How's Bucky doing with this game? Is he paying any attention to what's happening?

So, Dungeons and Dragons was just make believe rpg video game without the video part apparently.  Though with Steve’s map, drawings, and descriptions it was pretty easy to visualize everything that was going on. 

Bucky watched on as Steve fully embodied the character he was playing, his smile turning into a smirk as he said, “My name is Calder.  Are all of you ready to become very, very rich?”

“Yes, I mean da!” Bucky responded instantly.  Sam snickered at him and Nat proceeded to kick him under the table, again, damn he was gonna have a bruise by the end of the night.

Thankfully Steve didn’t seem to notice as he continued on as Calder.  “So Calder steps around Bucky and moves over to sit at the table.  They say, ‘So one out of the three is interested.  What about you two?  Wanna make a lot of gold?”

Sam shrugs his shoulders, “Sure, why not.”

Nat rolls her eyes.  “Prym is still playing with the dagger and says, “I’m going to need more details than just that.  How are we making money?  What do you expect us to do?”

Oh, that was a good question.  Nat was really fucking good at this.  She thought of all the right questions to ask and even came up with cool things for her character to be doing.  Bucky needed to step up his game and be more vocal.

Steve leaned back and spoke in Calder’s voice.  “I have a buyer who is willing to pay heaps of gold to get his hands on some relics, four to be exact.  I need your help to retrieve them.”

“So are you coming with us?”  Bucky asked in his Russian accent.  He still wasn’t positive about how everything worked but he knew for sure that he wanted to play with Steve’s character for as long as possible.  It was nice being able to have a conversation with him, even one as nerdy as this.

“Ah, no, no,” Steve said, leaning forward onto the table, “See I’ve heard amazing things about all of you, that’s why I contacted you, but I want to make sure they’re true so consider this your trial run.  Collect the first relic, bring it back to me, and then I’ll know I can trust you and we can truly work together from there.”

“And how are we supposed to know we can trust you?” Nat/Prym asked.

“Good question.  Part of it you’re just going to have to take on faith.  There’s a lot to be earned here.  If it makes you more comfortable you all can hold onto the relics until it is time to meet the buyer.  That being said should you try and find your own buyer behind my back I will know and I will kill you all.”

“Woah, woah, woah!  That escalated fast!” Sam called out

“Does Shawn actually say that?” Steve asked causing Bucky to chuckle.

Sam rolled his eyes but did switch to his southern accent and repeated the phrase.

Bucky should say something, right?  He should ask a question or do something but he couldn’t figure out what.  Thankfully Nat stepped in.

“Can I do an insight check?” Nat asked.

How did Nat know about all these checks?  What even were checks?  Scanning his character sheet Bucky eventually found where it said insight but that didn’t really explain what that meant.  Thankfully Steve explained.

“Anyone else want to roll an insight check?  What are you trying to figure out?  Insight is more about a person’s intentions so you can roll and see if Calder is telling the truth or not.”  Steve looked up at them from behind his ridiculously intricate screen.  Bucky made a mental note to ask him about that later, he had a suspicion that Steve had made it specifically for this game.

“Yeah sure, I’ll join in, haven’t rolled any dice yet.  Thought you said this was a dice rolling game,” Sam snarked grabbing his 20 sided die and rolling it.

Steve practically bounced up in his seat, “Oh, just wait till we’re in our first battle!”

Nat rolled her die, leaving Bucky to scramble as he dumped out all his dice and tried to discretely look at Nat and Sam’s dice to see which one he was supposed to roll.  Embarrassingly enough Steve must have noticed his struggle because he leaned over and gently pushed the large, roundish blue die away from the group.

“Thanks,” Bucky managed to mumble despite his embarrassment.

Steve smiled back then asked, “So what did you all get on your insight checks?”

“Got a 13,” Sam called out.

“I got a 14,” Nat said triumphantly, sticking her tongue out at Sam who had turned to glare at her.

Bucky rolled his die then checked his sheet multiple times to make sure he was looking at the correct number before sighing, “I got a 9.”

“Okay Prym and Shawn are fairly certain that they can trust that what Calder is saying is true.  They seem very adamant in the fact that they want to work with you but that they also won’t hesitate to kill you if you double cross them.”

“So we’re all going to do this then,” Bucky said.

Nat, of course, disagreed.  “We’ll help you but only if you answer one more question truthfully.”

 Steve smiled, “Of course, I’ll answer any questions about this that you may have.”

“How did you even hear about us?  Very few people alive know who I am so how did you not only know about me but know how to get a letter to me?”

Steve smiled, damn his smiles were amazing.  His eyes lit up each time and Bucky just couldn't look away.  “Calder kind of smirks at all of you, gets up and moves over to their bed.  They bend over and pull something out from under the bed.  It’s –“

“I throw my dagger at them,” Nat interrupts Steve.

“What, no, you can’t do that!” Bucky exclaims.

“Okay, so Bucky does that mean you want to try and stop her?”

“Of course I want to stop her, Nat there’s no reason to throw a dagger at Steve!”  Nat just leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and quirking that damn eyebrow at him again.

“Nice, okay, so how about you both roll.  Bucky if you want to stop her you need to get a higher number than her.  Um, maybe Bucky you can add your dexterity bonus and Nat since you’re making an attack just add your normal attack bonus.”

Glaring at Nat Bucky rolled.  He rolled a 20.  

Nat cursed quite colorfully under her breath.  Bucky looked over to see she had rolled a 1.  

“I got a 1,” Nat said, slumping forward to rest her head on the table.

“But don’t you add stuff to it?”  Bucky asked.  Wasn’t she supposed to add her attack bonus or something?

“Not with a natural 1.  Natural 1’s are always a failure just like natural 20’s are always a success,” Steve explained looking over at Bucky and then looking down at his roll.  Steve’s eyebrows shot up in surprise then his face turned into a smirk.

“Bucky you definitely stop Prym.  Do you want to describe how you do it?”

No, he didn’t really want to.  He had no idea how to do that.  Couldn’t Steve just do it for him?  Steve had been doing such an amazing job at describing everything couldn’t he just, continue to do that?  But looking at Steve he seemed so excited.  He was looking at Bucky like Bucky was the only one there, or was he just waiting for him to respond.  Nope, no he was waiting for a response.  Shit.

“Um so I guess since Nat already failed, um Prym tripped and the dagger fell out of her hands but I grab it and her before they both end up on the floor.”

Steve was beaming at him.  Like literal rays of sunshine were bouncing off this amazing guy in front of him.

Sam started laughing uncontrollably and nudging Nat’s arm.  “You’re so short too.  Bucky, buddy, tell me you lifted this little Halfling off the ground and she’s just dangling there!”

Seeing the look of absolute hatred on Nat’s face Bucky just couldn’t resist.  “Yeah, of course.  And I tuck the dagger away into my belt so she doesn’t get it back.”

“You better watch yourself Bucky,” Nat growled out.  Which was honestly terrifying because Bucky wasn’t sure if this was in game or out of game, he had a feeling it was both.

“Awesome, so Bucky’s holding Prym up as Calder finished pulling the object out from under their bed.  It’s a musical instrument, a lyre.”

Switching to Calder's voice Steve says, “Well now I’m not sure you deserve an answer after trying to impale me simply for bringing out Brody.  You see I’m a bit of a performer, and in my travels I hear many things.  I heard you mentioned and locked that knowledge away to use when I needed it and well, now I need you.  So, are we in agreement?  Will you all work with me to retrieve some relics and become very very rich?”

***

The session finished up with Calder explaining where they needed to go to get the first relic and how much gold they expected to make.  Of course Nat had to haggle and in the end it was agreed that Calder would get 40 percent of the total and they would each get 20 percent.  After that was all done their characters turned in for the night.  Bucky was hoping that someone at the table payed attention to the specifics because aside from the haggling part he definitely hadn’t.  When they wrapped up for the day Bucky once again walked with Steve down the many flights of stairs.  They walked mostly in silence but it felt almost comfortable, like there was no need for them to say anything.  That aside he really really wanted to ask this guy out.

They had reached the bottom of the stairs and Steve was starting to walk away.  “Hey Steve,” Steve turned back toward him, waiting to hear what he had to say.  So of course he took a deep breath and said, “See you next weekend.”  Chicken.

Steve took a step back, “Right, yeah, see you next weekend Bucky.”

So here he was, watching Steve walk away from his apartment, once again not having the courage to ask him out like he wanted to.  What was wrong with him?

Trudging back up the stairs and back into the apartment he found Nat and Sam already cuddled up on the couch together, flipping through the channels on the tv.

“Yo, you ask your boy out?” Sam called over his shoulder.

Bucky chose to just ignore that and went to go start on the dishes that had been piling up for the past couple of days.

“Well after all the oogling you did today that’s just rude,” Nat said.

Bucky continued to ignore his stupid roommates, instead filling up the dishwasher, sorting out the stupid pieces that weren’t dishwasher safe and throwing them into the sink, filling it with water and soap.  Damn he hated doing the dishes.

“You know, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be,” Sam said from the couch, attempting, and failing, to grab the remote from Nat.

Bucky dropped the sponge into the soapy water, moving his hands to rest on his hips. “Does that mean I don’t have to do laundry and dishes for you guys anymore?”

“Hell no.  That was the single nerdiest thing I’ve even had to do.  You definitely owe us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is going to be super hard to believe. But like I said in last chapters notes I've been actually rolling everyone's numbers cause I wanted it to be as real as possible. So when I rolled a natural 20 for Bucky followed by a natural 1 for Nat I was so shocked and so excited! I just thought it made everything more interesting. 
> 
> Anyway hope you liked this chapter. Coming up we'll see Steve trying to be more upfront with Bucky...trying is the key word here. Oh these boys.
> 
> Comment if you like!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve contemplates if he should talk to Bucky or not. He just wants to already be dating that boy, is that too much to ask?

It had gone well, really well.  Like, better than Steve could have possibly hoped for.  Everyone seemed to be into the story and seemed like they were excited to keep playing.  Bucky was a bit hesitant but hopefully as he got a handle of the rules he’d be more relaxed.

Bucky.  When he’d called out to him as he was leaving the apartment Steve had really thought that Bucky was going to ask him out.  Why hadn’t he?  Bucky had been flirting with him this whole time, right?  Or had he just read the entire situation completely wrong.

Steve thought about calling Aunt Peggy but he already knew what she’d say.  “Stop waiting for something to happen and make it happen yourself.”

But what if he was wrong.  What if Bucky was just being friendly?  He didn’t want to risk asking Bucky out only to be turned down and lose the best friends he’d made since transferring here.

He knew what Aunt Peggy would say to that type of thinking.  It involved lots of swear words and a kick in the ass.

Steve looked at the clock on his desk, 8:00.  Parliament would be closing in two hours.  Bucky should be there.  Making up his mind Steve stood up and stuffed his sketchpad and pencils into his bag and began the trek to Parliament.

***

Steve made it to the owl themed coffee shop and froze at the door. Was he really going to do this?  Was he ready to do this?  God he hadn’t even practiced what he was going to say, it was definitely going to come out all wrong.  Maybe he should just order something, but what?  His stomach was in knots, the anxiety quickly moving from his stomach to clutch his chest.  But then, he caught sight of Bucky, standing behind the counter in his owl embroidered apron and, surprisingly, the vice in his chest loosened.  He was able to breathe again as he watched Bucky smile at a customer, brown hair pulled up in a messy bun at the top of his head.  Flyaway hairs framing his face.  He was perfect.  Steve could do this.

Steve pushed open the door and joined the short line, gripping the strap of his bag tightly as he scanned the menu, trying to figure out what in the world he should order when he didn’t care for coffee.  The line moved quickly and before he knew it he was standing in front of Bucky’s blinding smile causing him to forget every single thing he had tried to prepare to say. 

“Heya Steve!  You here to prove that you do in fact drink?”

Steve consciously loosened his grip on his bag and smiled back at Bucky.  “Figured it was about time I give it a try.  You have any recommendations for someone who can’t stand coffee?”

“Well you are in luck,” Bucky leaned in as if he were revealing some great secret, “this coffee shop has more than just coffee.”  He leaned back again and Steve laughed when he started wiggling his eyebrows.  “How about some tea?” 

“That sounds perfect, um, a small tea, please?”  He had to stop himself from slapping his palm over his face, could he be any more awkward.

“Any preferences or should I just surprise you?” Bucky thankfully asked as Steve felt himself start to spiral down into anxiety at his absolute inability to have a simple conversation.

“No preferences.  I trust you.”  Bucky smiled softly at him, told him his total, then went off to make his tea.

Steve waited off to the side, taking in Parliament.  It was fairly empty, just a few people scattered throughout.  There wasn’t a line anymore, though it was getting a bit late for coffee, right?  Steve really knew nothing about coffee.

“Order for Steve,” Bucky called out.

Steve walked over and thanked Bucky for the tea.  “Are you going to tell me what it is before I taste it, or do I just have to hope for the best?”

“Well I was going to just have you trust me and taste it but I can also see how that could be quite mean.  So I present to you the finest herbal, mint tea that Parliament has to offer.”

Bucky was looking at him expectantly so Steve took a small sip.  The first thing he noticed was that it was hot.  Like superhot.  How could people drink stuff this hot?  But once he got past the initial temperature the minty flavor hit his tongue and he was impressed.  It was really good.

“This is great Bucky!  Thank you!”

“Happy to help a friend figure out that they do in fact drink.” 

There was a bit of an awkward silence as they both stood there, looking like they wanted to say something but not knowing what.  Steve eventually broke the silence.

“Guess I’ll go grab a seat now.”

He turned before Bucky could answer, face scrunching up as he realized how awful that must have sounded.

“Hey Bucky?” Steve called back, turning to look at Bucky behind the counter.

“Yeah Steve?”

Taking a deep, calming breath Steve went for it.  “I’ll be here for a while.  Maybe we can talk when you’re done for the night?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, yeah, that sounds good.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

“I’ll just, go sit down now.”  And Steve turned away once again, finding a seat in a corner where he could clearly see Bucky.

Sipping his tea Steve pulled out his sketch book and pencils and contemplated what he wanted to draw.  Bucky was the obvious choice but, that seemed a bit weird.  There was one thing that he really wanted to draw.  He had been thinking about it since their game session on Saturday.  It wouldn't be Bucky but it also would be at the same time.  It was the perfect workaround.

Time passed, images began to take shape on his sketch pad as he nursed his tea.  Every so often he would look up and check to see what Bucky was doing.  As time went on people finished up their coffees and left until it was just him and Bucky in the shop.  Looking down at his sketch pad he was happy with what had emerged.  He had drawn the scene of Calder and Bucky shaking hands.  Calder’s skirt was flowing out behind them while Bucky’s hair fell in loose locks to frame his face. 

“That’s really good,” a voice suddenly said over his shoulder.  Steve jumped and possibly let out a screech but he would never admit to it.  Bucky didn’t seemed phased at all, just continued taking in the picture he had been working on.

“Are you all done?”  Steve asked.

Bucky nodded, “Just need to lock up after we leave, then I’m free to go.  You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, I did.  I um,” Bucky moved to sit next to him and was just staring at him with this intensity that just made Steve’s chest burst. 

“I’m really glad we met Bucky.”

Bucky smiled, though maybe a bit reserved, “I’m really glad we met too.  What’s gotten into you tonight?”

“I keep thinking about how, you know when you want something, but you’re scared about wanting that something.  Because, what if that something doesn’t want you back.  But you’ll never know unless you try.  Unless you’re brave about it.  So, I’m planning on being brave but my heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of my chest.”  Steve paused to catch his breath because all he could feel, all he could hear, was the pounding in his chest. 

Bucky’s eyebrows drew together in that concerned way that they do.

“Steve?”

“No, I need to say this,” Steve said, holding up his hand to stop Bucky from saying anything else.  “I really like you Bucky.  And I’m hoping that you really like me too.  Do you wanna go out, on a date, with me?”

Bucky’s eyes were wide and there was, what seemed like, an eternity of silence before Bucky reached forward.  Was this it?  Had he read every sign wrong?  What was Bucky going to – oh, Bucky was holding his hand.  His thumb was gently rubbing circles on the back of Steve’s hand.  When he looked up Bucky no longer looked like a deer in headlights.  He was smiling that soft smile that Steve loved so much.  The one that was soft and intense at the same time.  The one that lit up his eyes and made the crinkles beside them even more visible.  Steve wanted to kiss those crinkles.  He wanted to kiss Bucky.

“Yes.  Yes Steve, I really, really wanna go on a date with you.”

Steve was beaming like an idiot but he didn’t care, he gripped Bucky’s hand tightly in his and just beamed at the man before him who, for some completely unknown reason, actually wanted to go on a date with him.

“But,” Bucky continued, and Steve felt his heart begin to pound again, but’s were never good.  “can we not tell Nat or Sam about this?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Comment if you like!!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why doesn't Bucky want Nat and Sam to know about him and Steve dating? Why are they both just so awkward?

“Can we not tell Nat and Sam about this?”

Had those words really left his mouth?  He meant them but Bucky hated that he then had to watch as Steve just shut down.  All light gone, he practically seemed to deflate before his eyes and he wished he could take the words back.  But he couldn’t and it needed to be this way, he just wasn’t sure how to explain it to Steve.

“Oh, um, ah, I mean I guess that’s fine but why?” Steve asked, refusing to meet Bucky’s eyes.

Bucky rubbed a hand through his hair, pulling the hair tie out and roughly rubbing at his scalp before he pushed his hair back and reach out for Steve’s hand.

“Steve,” Bucky started, giving his hand a gentle tug, hoping to see those beautiful blue eyes.  It took another gentle tug for Steve to look up at him.

“Look, I need you to know that this has nothing to do with you and everything to do with my roommates being assholes.”  Bucky paused and was rewarded when Steve let out a small huff of a chuckle.  “They have this bet going on about me asking you on a date.  Nat thought I’d never ask you out.  Sam had a bit more faith but still thought it would take a while before I managed it.  Now both of them are wrong but I just know that that won’t matter to them.  Now they’ll never let me live it down that you ended up asking me out before I could get the courage to do it myself.”

And yeah, that was part of the reason for sure.  But the other reason, the reason that Bucky wouldn’t tell Steve, was that if his roommates knew they were dating then they’d stop playing Dungeons and Dragons.  And Bucky was terrified of how Steve would feel if he realized they were only playing because they thought it would help him get a date with Steve instead of them actually wanting to play the game.  He thought that Nat and Sam were actually invested in the game and not being bribed to play by Bucky doing the laundry and sometimes the dishes.

“They had a bet about when you’d ask me out?” Steve asked, seeming incredulous but now gripping Bucky’s hand tightly in his own which Bucky took as a win.  “So, you’ve been thinking about asking me out for a while now?”

“You have no idea.  You really have no idea how gone on you I am do you?” Bucky asked, scooting their chairs together so their legs could intertwine under the table and their knees knocked together. The look on Steve’s face was answer enough.

“Steve I was gone on you from the moment you walked into this dinky little coffee shop.”

“Really?  You saw a little shrimp walk in and awkwardly ask about hanging up a nerdy sign and you thought that was someone you’d like to date?”

“No, I saw a handsome young man walk in and ask to hang up a sign for a game he is passionate about.  I talked to someone who was funny and smart and talented and I knew from that first moment that he was someone I wanted to get to know.  And can we talk about how brave you are?  I’ve wanted to ask you out from the moment I saw you.  Nat and Sam have been making fun of me since that first night.  But you, you actually took that step to ask me out and man am I glad you did.  So, what do you think?  Still want to date me even though I want us to keep it quiet for a bit?

Steve leaned forward, still grasping Bucky’s hand tightly in his own. “Of course I still want to date you, you ridiculous man you.”

Bucky smiled and practically slumped back in his seat in relief, but he didn’t want to let go of Steve’s hand.  Instead Bucky pulled him closer, Steve moved easily out of his chair and into Bucky’s arms, and it was as if they meant for this.  Steve fit.  There was no other way to say it, they just fit together.  Steve slide into his arms and slotted up against him as if they had done this a million times.  Bucky’s arms wound around Steve’s shoulders, pulling his flush against his chest.  Steve rested his forehead in the crook of Bucky’s neck and they just breathed together. 

This was all Bucky had wanted and nothing could ruin it.  Except for the voice in the back of his head telling him to be fully honest with Steve.  To tell him now about how he was bribing Nat and Sam, how they didn’t really want to play his nerdy game with him.  Maybe if he told him the truth now then things would be okay?  But no, he’d already made his bed and now he needed to lie in it.

They both pulled back at the same time and Steve returned to his chair beaming and just confirming that Bucky wouldn’t do anything to make that smile fade.

“So, I’m fine with hiding it from your roommates, for a time.  Long enough for us to plan some way to get back at them for betting on our relationship status.”

Bucky laughed, “Okay, sure, that works for me.”

Silence fell over the pair but it didn’t feel awkward to Bucky, it felt comfortable.  He liked having this time where he could just soak in Steve’s presence.  He was smiling softly back at him and everything just felt right.

“So, since you were brave enough to ask me out can I plan our first date?” Bucky asked.

“I really don’t need anything fancy,” Steve said, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Hey, no no, nothing fancy, nothing super involved, just a nice simple date.  Do you eat?  I know you only recently started drinking but if you like food I might know a place we can go,” Bucky reassured Steve quickly.

Steve visibly relaxed but also winced a bit.  “Sorry, I just, I can be a bit of an anxious mess about things.  So when I say I don’t need anything fancy I truly mean that anything more than like burgers and a movie might cause me to panic.  At least at first.”

Steve was looking down at his lap and Bucky just couldn’t let that stand.

“Hey, come on,” he said, reaching forward and resting his hand on Steve’s cheek, waiting for him to look up at him, “I just told you that I was too chicken shit to ask you out.  I understand panic and comfort zones.  We’ll move just as fast or slow as you’d like.  Plus I’m a college student working at a coffee shop, I’m sorry to tell you I’m not going to be able to sweep you off your feet on any super fancy dates for a few years.”

Steve laughed, “Okay, okay yeah that makes me feel a lot better.”

“Good.”  Looking at the time Bucky realized that it was way past time to lock up.  “So I’ve got to lock up here but if you stick around I can walk you back to yours, if that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

Bucky quickly went through the steps of locking up Parliament and soon was locking the door behind them.  They walked silently, side by side, for a bit before Bucky reached down and laced their fingers together.  They were surrounded by silence once again, and once again it wasn’t awkward in the slightest.  It was comfortable.  It was perfect.

“This is me,” Steve eventually said as they stopped in front of a tall building.

“I’ll text you our epically simple date plans tomorrow,” Bucky said with a smirk.

“Sounds perfect.”

They stood there, staring at each other, and dammit Bucky was done being a coward.  Moving slow enough that Steve could tell what he was planning Bucky leaned forward, angling his head down to meet Steve’s.  He paused, giving Steve an extra chance to pull back, and then gently pressed their lips together.  Their hands were still clasped tightly as they stood, Steve on his tip toes, Bucky leaning down, mouths pressed together.  It was a simple kiss, and yet, just like everything else that night, it was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry! Work has been crazy but I still should have made time for this. This is exactly why I only ever read works when they're completed. I promise I haven't forgotten this fic and will work on it when I can.
> 
> Let me know what you think! 
> 
> We're getting close to the end, I'm just trying to figure out how much more dnd I can fit in around the main plot!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, this is all I have at the moment but I definitely have a plan for the entire story. I'm basically putting all my anxieties on Steve in this so if he feels super out of character I apologize.
> 
> Next up will be Steve putting up his poster in one Bucky Barnes place of work!
> 
> I have a tumblr but I'm terrible at using it/keeping up with it but feel free to check it out: wordsaplentyao3.
> 
> Comments are greatly appreciated!! Hopefully this was an okay start to the story!


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